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The King is coming to New York! Well, for a couple of days as LeBron James’ Miami Heat plays the Knicks and Nets.

New York once dreamed of a longer engagement. Knick fans staged impromptu “LeBronStock” festivals when his Cavaliers played in Madison Square Garden circa 2009, chanting his name in the hope of landing him as a free agent in 2010. Jay-Z, Bron’s close friend, had a piece of the Nets but that wouldn’t turn out to mean anything, either.

What took you so long? LeBron James, on top at last. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the New York teams have been up and down since, James would go from “Next”--magazine cover shorthand for all those designated to succeed Michael Jordan—to Basketball Hell and back, derided as a mercenary for leaving Cleveland, scorned for failing to win his predicted (“... not five, not six, not seven”) titles, before actually bringing home the first two.

James isn’t Jordan yet, trailing by four titles (6-2), if only one MVP (5-4). On the other hand, there’s no doubt LeBron has donned MJ’s mantle as the player who transcends all else in the game.

Happily for Jordan, he became transcendent in a kindler, gentler time. James is a study of the growing perils of fame in a fast-changing media environment with wider reach, grounded in an audience with a deeper level of engagement.

If the dynamic didn't change, there’s a warp factor. Jordan was allowed to grow into greatness with an actual childhood. Only he cared if he didn’t make his high school team as a sophomore, or break through until taking the NBA by storm as a rookie in 1984. James was set atop his pedestal in high school. The surprise wasn’t anything that he failed to do, but that he carried his impossible expectations so far before collapsing under their weight.

In another dynamic that hasn’t changed but has mushroomed, more than media companies profit from today’s overheated process. Entire industries rise and fall on the overheated perceptions of star players’ “heroic deeds” and “epic falls.”

Jordan personally created the athletic shoe industry--before they were "sneakers"--upon arrival in the NBA, with the help of Nike, Spike Lee and the Weiden+Kennedy ad agency, which produced TV spots that turned a young basketball player into the rock star of rock stars.

This revolution was televised. The game's reigning superstars, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, credited with having saved the moldering NBA, had modest deals with Converse. Magic promptly fired his old school agent, hired Laker p.r. assistant Lon Rosen in his place and cashed in on his smile, too.

The younger the player, the companies learned, the greater the identification by teens and pre-teens. In 1992, Shaquille O’Neal, a famed player at LSU, got $10 million from Reebok. In 1996, Allen Iverson, a Georgetown freshman known largely by hard-core fans, got $50 million from Reebok and made a huge splash with his line of “The Answer” shoes, introducing a new value: “street cred.”

By 2003, when Nike signed James to an $80 million deal when he graduated from high school in Akron, O., the parameters had changed. Great and appealing were replaced by young and famous. Once Jordan, Johnson, Bird, Charles Barkley, et al., had to demonstrate their greatness and appeal. Now companies put up tens of millions of dollars on the come, hoping to find the next MJ--whose impact continues with Brand Jordan, 11 years after he retired.

With unprecedented hype came unprecedented expectations. Now at a Bron-like 25 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists a game, James averaged 39-8-8 in the 2009 East Finals... and was hounded for not congratulating the Orlando players who had upended his No. 1-seeded Cavs, looking like “a prima donna” to the New York Times, an “immature, self-absorbed brat” to Yahoo.

In 2010, the Cavs, again No. 1 seeds, fell to Boston as James struggled, playing hurt (and averaging 27-9-7). The press went bonkers. To Fox Sports, Bron was a poseur who didn’t believe his own hype, or “simply the king of chokers. Or his bags are packed and he’s already headed out of town.”